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My Lai

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Today’s the 40th anniversary of the slaughter at My Lai. Less than a week after the episode was first reported in November 1969 — more than 18 months after the incident itself — the South Vietnamese Defense Ministry released an explanatory statement that described the encounter as an operation intended to destroy “an important Communist force” in Quang Ngai province.

When soldiers of the Task Force Barker engaged into the target they met strong resistance from the enemy. This hamlet was organized by the Communists into a good combat hamlet with good communication and an underground system. The population of the hamlet was forced by the Communists to stay in their places.

The encounter resulted in 125 enemy killed and also there were around 20 civilians killed during the fighting because of the artillery.

Therefore, reports of newspapers and of the foreign press in the past days which said that there were 567 civilians killed were totally untrue.

A few weeks later on December 8, Richard Nixon discussed My Lai for the first time, describing it during a news conference as an unfortunate but “isolated” case. He then reminded the country that the United States had built “over 250,000 churches, pagodas, and temples for the people of Vietnam.” The correct total, as it turned out, was 268.

No American president since Nixon has spoken of the incident in public.

Here’s a clip from Four Hours in My Lai a documentary produced for Yorkshire Television in 1989.

The rest of the documentary can be found here.

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